ArticlemedRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences2026
Clinical Trial Components of NIH Career Development Awards: Supporting the Nation's Future Trialists.
Article in medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In 2027, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will no longer support costs associated with clinical trials (CT) for career development (K) awards. NIH's CT definition encompasses many types of research, from early-stage pilot work through definitive studies. The types and sizes of trials K awardees conduct have not been described, which could inform ongoing policy changes relevant to the next generation of clinical trialists. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of NIH RePORTER data to characterize the types and sizes of CTs supported by NIH K01, K08, and K23 awards funded in fiscal years 2024-2025 under a CT Required or CT Optional funding opportunity announcement (FOA), with non-missing abstract text. A rule-based classification scheme applied to free-text abstracts categorized each award into 5 mutually exclusive trial types: pilot/feasibility/proof-of-concept, efficacy/effectiveness, trial confirmed with type unclear, other (mechanistic, ancillary, or phase I/II), or no trial-specific language identified. Trial size was assessed among abstracts reporting an explicit, manually verified sample size. Of 1336 unique awards funded under CT Required (n=1051) or CT Optional (n=285) FOAs, 815 (61.0%) were classified as pilot, feasibility, or proof-of-concept studies, and 55 (4.1%) as efficacy or effectiveness studies; 204 (15.3%) had a confirmed trial of unclear type, 41 (3.1%) were other, and 221 (16.5%) had no trial-specific language. Among CT Required awards, 730 (69.5%) were pilot, feasibility, or proof-of-concept work. Among 273 awards (20.4%) with a verified sample size, the median was 60 participants (IQR, 44-80), with 236 (86.4%) enrolling ≤100 participants. Given these findings that CT within NIH K awards are generally small and early-stage, NIH's decision to no longer support trial costs may adversely affect the scientist development pipeline.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.